1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a liner for hanging baskets, and particularly, a liner for wire hanging baskets designed to hold soil and live plants and flowers.
2. Background Discussion
Most of the homes in the western world have gardens, patios, atriums, porchways or overhangs where the occupants seek to cultivate live plants and flowers to enhance the beauty and appearance of the home. In addition, many business premises and public open-air places have landscaping and planters as an integral part of their planning or architecture.
In order to create attractive garden scenes and views in public or private places, detailed planning and design has to be followed by preparation and installation, which, due to the lack of automated methods, is very labor intensive. The hanging basket is an excellent means of displaying one's horticultural creativity and can be utilized even where there is no ground level planting area available. It can be displayed in a multitude of places and, when the traditional wire basket is used, maximum use can be made of the plant growing area, by using the top, bottom and sides of the basket.
Unfortunately the preparation, filling and planting of wire baskets is one of the most time consuming and labor intensive of gardening activities. This is a deterrent to many people and thus the making up of wire baskets has been mainly done by professionals or enthusiastic amateurs.
The most commonly used medium for lining wire hanging baskets is sphagnum moss which, although it gives a very pleasing, natural and aesthetic look to the finished hanging basket, is very tedious with which to work. The sphagnum moss method entails taking the dried moss, which is brittle and crumbly, and soaking it in water to make it sufficiently pliable to mold it around the interior of the basket. This is time consuming and requires skill and experience to produce a consistent and functional lining. There are several problems with the moss method. These include the level of skill required to create an effective lining and to avoid using too much moss and thus causing unnecessary waste. The moss dries out very quickly and allows moisture and water to escape and thus the plants in the basket require water replenishment very frequently.
There are two other types of liners available for wire hanging baskets. These are, firstly, a molded liner made from compressed fiber board and, secondly a flexible matting liner made from coconut fiber. Both of these two products are simpler and easier to work with than sphagnum moss but do not provide the natural appearance. There are further disadvantages to these liners, both of which are designed primarily to fit only one size of basket. The fiber board liner is of rigid construction, which gives it strength but does not allow it to be molded to the shape of the basket. It also does not facilitate the growing of plants from the side and base. The coconut matting liner can be molded to the shape of the basket, but it frays very easily when it is cut or trimmed to fit varying basket shapes and sizes. It also has poor moisture retaining properties, thus allowing excessive water drainage, as is the case with the sphagnum moss liner.
The objective of the invention is to provide a liner for wire hanging baskets which overcomes the problems of the other methods of lining and at the same time produce a natural and aesthetic appearance to the completed basket. As the invention is also simple to work with and requires minimal skill and experience it will allow a greater number of gardeners to produce their own hanging baskets.